Down goes Iowa

[BillBrasky4Cy]

The KXNO guys were also talking about the arena seat layout too. Lol

I mean, Fran said it too, but both teams used the same ball....and who knows if Richmond practiced with one before, etc. It's March...and coaches have to prep their teams for the X and Os as well as all the mental stuff that comes with it.

Reminds me of when a football game has a variable (wet field, wind, etc) a coach and staff have to prep/adjust.

I will actually cut Iowa some slack because studies have shown that teams really struggle to shoot in the bigger venues, especially in the football stadiums. Buffalo is a hockey venue so there is a ton of dead space behind the buckets like Wells Fargo Arena so it's definitely a sightline adjustment.

 

[BryceC]

Who has Fran developed?

Garza, Marble, Aaron White, it's a pretty long list honestly and he's done a great job at that.

 

[FerShizzle]

This isn't talked about enough but IMO Iowa will miss Keegans efforts on defense more than his offensive production.

and his rebounding. he got them several extra possessions per game. kris doesnt seem to have the same grit on the boards and is even more of a beta than his brother.

 

[kentkel]

View attachment 96864

With a belly like that, I’d say he’s probably expecting triplets.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

Ahhh that's better. I feel like I should buy a Spiders shirt.

Bought a Richmond hat that I am going to proudly wear on the reg here in eastern Iowa for the foreseeable future.

Legacy Richmond Basketball | UR SpiderShop

www.urspidershop.com

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Now I'm hearing no more Sunday championship games, team was too tired...Big 10 has to do something about that.

And, had Jack Nunge stuck around.....they make a run at the NC.

I've seen a lot of "tired legs" excuses on Twitter. Even Lt. Dan thinks that's ridiculous.

 

[IASTATE07]

Who has Fran developed?

Are you being serious? I totally expected Keegan Murray to be first team all American when we were making fun of Fran for taking him and his brother. Fran has taken low rated recruits and turned them into solid players. Nicholas Baer was a walk on and was a solid contributor.

 

[Yaz]

I will actually cut Iowa some slack because studies have shown that teams really struggle to shoot in the bigger venues, especially in the football stadiums. Buffalo is a hockey venue so there is a ton of dead space behind the buckets like Wells Fargo Arena so it's definitely a sightline adjustment.

View attachment 96866

Didn't the Spiders have the same disadvantage? Their home court only seats around 7100 people. I would say they had a bigger disadvantage. Although, having Fran as your coach is a disadvantage too, probably a bigger reason with the hoks lost.

 

[nfrine]

I will actually cut Iowa some slack because studies have shown that teams really struggle to shoot in the bigger venues, especially in the football stadiums. Buffalo is a hockey venue so there is a ton of dead space behind the buckets like Wells Fargo Arena so it's definitely a sightline adjustment.

View attachment 96866

The only issue I see is the size of the crowd...Carver is usually only half full.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Just finished watching the 1st half. Can't believe how many bunnies the Spiders missed. Saw 10 points left off the board. Also, post play is much tougher in the B12. Not sure which translates better to the NBA. Admittedly, this is only the 2nd time I've seen Keegan all year, but just doesn't seem 'tough'. Definitely not like Garza. Two very bad calls against Iowa (ie Bohannan all ball, and blockout under basket) and a couple of stupid fouls (which all teams have). Other than that pretty consistent officiating. Great Spidy D (2 consecutive clock violations). Minus under the bucket shots, shooting was not just off, but way off ... for the most part for both teams.

You're going to need to be more specific.

 

[AuH2O]

If Jack Nunge would have stayed the Natty was in sight.

Iowa is in the if we only had a part time starter for an NIT team phase of denial.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

What little I have watched, Keegan’s defense is bad. Not sure if it’s just a keep him out of foul trouble thing or it’s just bad.

I disagree. Yes, he may play off some in order to stay out of foul trouble but he erases a lot of points close to the basket. Defensively he's been one of the bright spots this year.

 

[NoCreativity]

Thus showed up on my my Facebook news feed this morning. Enjoy.View attachment 96862

JFC, Richmond and Tenneesse just won championships Sunday also it didn't seem to affect them.

 

[cyfanatic]

and his rebounding. he got them several extra possessions per game. kris doesnt seem to have the same grit on the boards and is even more of a beta than his brother.

In the time I watched Keegan I thought his defense was concerning...and I started noticing it during the Oregon game last year. The ball was dribbled past him time after time in that game leading to dunks and he just spun around and watched it. He isn't physical at all which might play at the next level depending upon where a team plays him and what they expect from him. But he won't win any defensive player of the year awards outside of a league like this year's Big Ten.

 

[stender]

To be fair I've been there. Well not the in game tickets angle but after the UAB loss I didn't watch any of the tournament until the Elite 8.

Keegan is a big loss but I do think Kris and P. McCaffery take steps forward and somewhat fill the gap. Bohannon is just pretty limited outside shooting 3's and Iowa has guys already on the team who do that reasonably well.


This is how I feel. I've seen enough statements on how without Garza they'd be trash or previous to that the guard play would be so terrible that they wouldn't the tournament that I'm automatically skeptical of folks saying that again.

Obviously we'll have to see how the transfer portal shakes out, both gains and losses, but keep in mind from last year to this year Iowa lost Garza(NPOTY and top scorer+ rebounder), Wieskamp(2nd scoring+2nd rebounding), CJ Fredrick(4th scoring +3 pt sharpshooter), and Jack Nunge(quality reserve big man). Despite this they still managed to get a pretty high seed in the tournament.

Assuming they can hold on to the key guys this year the base returning looks way better.

Fran is pretty good at reloading, it's winning in the tournament that's his problem.

Iowa benefitted this year from a soft schedule. Non-con was awful. Yes, they won at UVA, but they were down. Lost by 20 at Hilton. In conference play, 10/12 of their wins were against teams in bottom half of league. Other two wins were against average OSU + MSU teams. Zero wins against top 4 teams. In conference tourney, they beat 13th seed (NW), 9th seed (IU) on a desperation bank. Beat Rutgers, meh. I will give them credit for beating Purdue, that was a good win. So all told, they had ONE good win. Their 26-9 record was a mirage.

 

[allfourcy]

Hawk fans now ******** about 4 games in 4 days.

Didn't Richmond have the same thing? Know they played on Sunday, too. But maybe their conference isn't as big. That's what you get with a 14-team conference which they probably will make even bigger in the future, correct? Or no?

 

[Sigmapolis]

Haliburton was born in February 2000.

The Murray brothers were born in August 2000.

Horton-Tucker was born in November 2000.

Haliburton and THT "should" have been seniors this year. But they're playing well against grown men and the absolute best players in the world in the NBA.

The Murray brothers are sophomores playing against children.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

I will actually cut Iowa some slack because studies have shown that teams really struggle to shoot in the bigger venues, especially in the football stadiums. Buffalo is a hockey venue so there is a ton of dead space behind the buckets like Wells Fargo Arena so it's definitely a sightline adjustment.

View attachment 96866

Richmond didn't seem to be affected...and they probably play in a smaller space than Iowa. At any rate, from what I've heard (I've never gone to a game there), CHA has a lot of dead space of its own...they should be used to it. Maybe they couldn't smell the pizza?

 

[FerShizzle]

In the time I watched Keegan I thought his defense was concerning...and I started noticing it during the Oregon game last year. The ball was dribbled past him time after time in that game leading to dunks and he just spun around and watched it. He isn't physical at all which might play at the next level depending upon where a team plays him and what they expect from him. But he won't win any defensive player of the year awards outside of a league like this year's Big Ten.

he relies almost solely on his length and bounce for every thing he does on defense (kind of the same thing on offense really). he doesnt have a lot of awareness of lateral quickness.

i expect a huge drop-off from him when he gets to the next level where everyone is lengthy and bouncy like him.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Garza, Marble, Aaron White, it's a pretty long list honestly and he's done a great job at that.

Fran didn't develop Garza, Frank took him out of Iowa City to work on his game. One can even argue that Luka saved Fran's job... White and Marble are literally two of the few bright spots during Frans career but that was how many years ago?